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Monday, April 04, 2005

More BFP and the pope

This is interesting. If you look on the BFP website today, it looks like the top story is about the suspect in the Scoville killings. There are only two pope stories in the "top stories" section on the website.

But the main headline in the newspaper says "'Our beloved John Paul: Mourners view late pope; Vatican prepares for funeral, conclave." The story dominates the front page. And there are actually 2 more full pages of coverage inside, along with another mostly pope-filled page. So that's a total of roughly 3 1/2 pages of pope coverage. Section A only has 8 pages. And there are only three stories in the whole section written by BFP staffers. Two of them relate to the pope.

Hey Alison! Yeah, I read it. I actually liked it, though I just couldn't finish the marathon article. I wasn't bothered by it because the ratio of pope news vs. other news made more sense than the ratio in the Free Press. I expect the NYT to cover big events like that, because they can, and they can do it well.

A local paper's strength is that it can cover the local community, but a paper that doesn't do that well is really failing in its mission.

i am fascinated with the mythology that's already rising up around the pope and the minutes before his death. gazing out the window to the faithful in the square, his feeble yet brave sign of the cross, the "amen" with his last breath... poor terri schiavo needed a better PR person. the conspiracist in me can't help but wonder if the failure of the right-to-lifers to save her was neatly deflected on purpose by the death of (to quote g.w.'s live eulogy from the oval office) a "hero for the ages."

the whole thing, including the pope's policies on birth control, homos, and mary's virginity, makes me very very nervous.